I’ll just be straight up about this one — I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I never have. The idea that, “This year will be different. This is the year I’ll make a change.” doesn’t seem to be the right attitude for real change. And in fact, the vast majority of New Year’s Resolutions are broken — quickly!
Real change takes effort. Often, real change requires a pivotal event or revelation. Having to remember to write, “2007″ instead of “2006″ in your checkbook is not a pivotal event. It’s not personal. It is merely a convenient way for historians to keep track of things. Growing up, a new school year often meant more to me than a new calendar year.
If you need to make a change, search your soul. Find the motivation within yourself and do it because it needs doing. Start now, because you finally realized how important it was rather than at midnight on January 1, 2007 because it happens to be the start of a new year AND a Monday.
When you do that soul searching and find that pivotal moment of understanding, you won’t want to wait for January 1st. You will know, to the depths of your soul, that you are no longer the person who ______. When you give yourself an extra day or week or month to keep at the old habit, a “good bye” period, then you are still the person who ______. You just have a nagging voice (maybe not even your own) that thinks maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t.
I have little doubt that the New Year’s resolutions that succeed are a result of deep soul-searching and finding that intrinsic motivation. This is how I have lost weight (one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions) — and I have lost quite a bit of it, but never beginning in January.
Going into the new year I am going to continue to try to be the best person I can be, to be kind to people, and to take care of myself and my son. I could use a cleaner house — maybe one day I’ll find the resolve and self-discipline to do that. When I do, it will probably start on a Wednesday in July.